Carillion's former FD leaves another non-exec role

Decision means Richard Adam has stepped down from four posts in recent months

A former Carillion finance director whose performance is expected to be looked at by the official receiver as part of an investigation into the firm’s collapse resigned yesterday as a non-executive director at an engineering consultant.

Documents filed at Companies House reveal that Adam quit his role as a non-excutive director at Teddington-based BMT Group just nine months after being appointed.

Adam (pictured) is understood to have headed up BMT’s audit committee and was appointed last May.

Adam’s former colleague at Carillion, ex-chief executive Richard Howson, also resigned as a non-exec yesterday, leaving FTSE 250 oil and gas business Wood with “immediate effect”. He had been appointed back in May 2016.

News of the resignations come as business secretary Greg Clark said he wanted an investigation into the events surrounding Carillion’s collapse speeded up.

The investigation is set to stretch back into Carillion’s history over a number of years and Clark added: “I have asked that [it] looks not only at the conduct of the directors at the point of its insolvency but also of any individuals who were previously directors. Any evidence of misconduct will be taken very seriously.”

Adam has stepped down from a number of non-exec roles in recent months beginning with his decision last September to resign his position at FTSE 250 transport business First Group.

Adam, who is still listed as a director of the business on Companies House, joined First Group, which operates scores of buses in the country as well as the Great Western Railway and also owns the Greyhound bus network in the US and Canada, in February last year as chair of the £5.6bn turnover firm’s audit committee.

According to the firm’s 2017 annual report, Adam was paid £6,000 for his work up to First Group’s financial year end, 31 March.

At the time of Adam’s decision to quit, First Group said: “The Board has commenced a formal search for his replacement and Richard has agreed to remain as Chairman of the Group’s Audit Committee until a successor is appointed.”

Adam continues to head up the audit committee at listed estate agent Countrywide after being appointed to the role at the £737m business back in August 2014. But last October the firm said he had decided to leave the role at its next AGM which is set to take place this April.

In Countrywide’s 2016 annual report, the latest available, Adam details the work of the audit and risk committee and adds: “During 2016, the Committee has continued to monitor the integrity of the Group’s financial statements and satisfy itself that any significant financial judgements made by management are sound.”

Adam was paid £55,000 by Countrywide for his work in 2016 with the report saying he would collect the same amount for the following year.

And in a move first flagged last October, Adam stepped down as a non-exec at housebuilder Countryside at the end of last month after more than two years in the role.

Earlier this month, City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority said it had launched an investigation into the “timeliness and content of announcements made by Carillion between 7 December 2016 and 10 July 2017”. A trading update on 7 December 2016 in which Carillion said “performance was meeting expectations” was Adam’s last major Stock Market duty with the firm before he retired later that month.